I dislike step.

I get to take fitness classes at work for free, so I usually try to do something that lands around lunchtime. It's a good break, I don't have to work out when I get home, and it keeps me awake through the afternoon. Thursdays, I try to go to a class that is a combination of cardio and strength training. I go because I need the strength training. Unfortunately, the instructor is also a step instructor, so once in awhile she pulls the steps out.

I'm not a coordinated person. I can't dance, I don't pick up on footwork too easily and I'm not good at falling properly. So step + me = bad, bad idea.

This past Thursday, the instructor pulled out the steps. I'm already there, I can't just leave, so whatever, I'll try it. We didn't do anything complicated (grapevines and whatever else those crazy step people do), and I didn't even have my step up on risers (not making myself look good here). Despite all that, I managed to misstep and miss the step, rolling my right ankle. Of course, another woman fell and hit her head, so I probably got off easier, but still. If we wanted a step class, we'd take a step class. Plenty are offered. Keep the steps in storage on Thursdays, please?

I felt fine Thursday and finished the class. Then yesterday after work I went to the Capitol Hill Block Party. As with all concerts, I wore boots with no support, really, and was standing for hours. By the time I got home, my poor ankle was definitely swollen. And this morning, its tender.

So no running for me, AGAIN. This is getting old. Maybe it'll feel better tomorrow if I ice it and stay off of it today.

I dislike step.

Cross training to Monte Cristo

We'll call it cross training, but really we just needed to get out of the city and into the trees.

I had read about this hike last year, and we never made it out, so today we went. Monte Cristo is an old abandoned ghost town about two hours (driving, plus a four-mile hike) outside of Seattle in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. It was a mining town, but floods kept taking out the road, so now the forest has taken over again. It's a pretty easy hike, as most of it follows the old road. You do get to cross a river on a giant log, which is kind of exciting, and there are a couple big hills, but there isn't any climbing or long switchbacks like some of the trails out here.

Being in the woods, listening to the river, was wonderful. I forget how much I like the trees until we go to the middle of a forest again. The town itself has an old railroad turntable, a few buildings that were down by the tracks, and pretty much only one building left up in the actual town site—though they've labeled where a lot of the houses used to be. The main street was named Dumas Street, appropriate in a town called Monte Cristo. There are a few other odds and ends strewn about—wheels and tools—but the forest has pretty much taken over once again.

We ate lunch once we got to Monte Cristo, I had a lovely TLT (tempeh, lettuce, tomato), though I probably could have eaten two.

Four miles in and four miles out, and we were ready to come home and eat again.

Kinda want to be a Warrior ...

I'm thinking about attempting the Warrior Dash in September. While the run is only 3 or 4 miles, its the obstacles along the route that are the most intriguing and the most daunting. Here's the run closest to me. And it isn't even all the obstacles--mostly its the rappelling (hello, twig arms!) and the fire jumping. Oh, and maybe the hay climb, but only because the rest of the race will involve hay in the pants which is not pleasant. 

Still considering it. I have until Aug. 30 to decide.